Boise River Raised To Historic Levels Today

Just when we thought it the major flooding challenges were in the past, the Army Corps of Engineers announced they will raise the Boise River to rare levels. The Idaho Statesman reports that the Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps will raise cubic feet per second to 9,300 cfs. This is the second highest total since Lucky Peak Reservoir was built.

The collection of both local, county, state,and federal agencies had hoped that last week the area snow pack could be managed. The river level was dropped for the first time in recent memory. However, that's where Mother Nature stepped in with increased temperatures.

"Weather is our wild card and it played its card this week," said Kate McGwire, Ada County Public Affairs Officer. The runoff conditions and weather caused the Corps and the Bureau to make the decision to raise the levels.

McGwire continued, "the runoff conditions were higher than predicted. There's still a lot of snow in the mountains and that snow has to go somewhere. We have that extremely warm day on Tuesday and last weekend."

Residents should keep themselves, as well as kids and pets, away from the Greenbelt due to the saturated and unstable conditions of the riverbanks.